1. Field
One or more embodiments of the present invention relate to a support apparatus of an ultrasound probe, a handsfree ultrasound probe including the support apparatus, and a method of operating the support apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
An ultrasound apparatus, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus, a computed tomography (CT) apparatus, an X-ray apparatus, etc. may be used as medical devices for obtaining a medical image of a body. By reason of a resolution of the medical image or a size of the medical device, these apparatuses may photograph a part of the body or an overall part of the body. The overall part of the body may be photographed at a time or the part of the body may be photographed in several times and then photographed images may be combined into one image to obtain a combined image of the whole part of the body.
An ultrasound diagnosis apparatus includes an ultrasound probe that transmits and receives ultrasound, a signal processing apparatus that performs signal processing on the received ultrasound, and a display apparatus that displays an ultrasound image.
The ultrasound probe that a user who is a doctor is holding by his/her hand contacts a target object such as a patient body, transmits ultrasound to the target object, and receives an echo signal of the ultrasound. However, although a user needs to fix the ultrasound probe to the target object when more closely diagnosing a specific part of the target object, it is difficult to fix the ultrasound probe more than a predetermined period of time due to a weight of the ultrasound probe.